


Out of the Woods and Into the Snow

by ZadieWrites



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Corpses, F/M, Huddling For Warmth, Hypothermia, Married Kara/Mordred, Protective Mordred, they do die at the end, very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:15:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29851044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZadieWrites/pseuds/ZadieWrites
Summary: A fic in which Mordred manages to escape with Kara in Drawing of the Dark but they get lost in Ismere and end up both freezing to death. That’s the fic.For the Merlin Bingo under the prompt: Huddling for Warmth.
Relationships: Kara/Mordred (Merlin)
Kudos: 4
Collections: Merlin Bingo





	Out of the Woods and Into the Snow

**Author's Note:**

> I’m so sorry that I take all the prompts and make them way sadder than they have to be. Idk where this came from tbh.

The wind was bitter and cut through their clothes as if they weren’t there at all. The sky was black and starless, making navigation impossible. The two druids’ shivered and their teeth chattered as they traveled together in the snow. 

The snowy plains had seemingly no end and there was no sign of life besides the two of them. Not a distant glow of a fire, nor the scent of smoke in the air. The spell the two had been hexed with still binded Mordred’s magic so he couldn’t make the wind or the snow stop, and he and Kara were essentially stranded. 

They’d managed to escape from Camelot with guards on their tails and had traveled for weeks on foot. Now, in Ismere, it looked like their journey would end here.

The wind burned the back of Mordred’s throat as he held Kara’s hand. Their knees were weak from trudging through snow for what felt like days. They both knew they couldn’t travel for much longer, yet at the same time knew that if they stopped here, they would likely not survive the night. 

Mordred stopped walking and looked around. 

“W-why are we stopping?” Kara questioned her husband, quietly. 

“B-because if we k-keep walking, we’re going to collapse in the snow. Our highest chance of survival comes if we stop willingly.” Mordred told her. 

“What do you think we should do?” she asked. 

It was rare she let him take the lead in any situation. It indicated she must really have no idea what to do. But he could protect her. It was his job to after all. 

“I think . . . we should find the closest thing we can to shelter . . . and hide there.”

After a bit more walking all they could find were two big rocks, one more flat and angular than the other. Mordred lifted up the flat rock and leaned it against the bigger one, creating a little shelter. Kara crawled inside, followed by Mordred. It was still cold, but somewhat better protected from  
The wind.

She had her back against the stone and she shivered. Her cloak wasn’t as protective as his, and he had more body fat than her. He crawled over to her, and gingerly wrapped his arms around her body, his head against her shoulder, so their fronts were pressed up against one another. Then he wrapped the end of his dark cloak around what his body couldn’t cover and held her.

“Are you gonna be okay?” She asked, knowing the true answer.

Neither of them would be okay. 

“Yeah. I run hot. I’ll be fine.” He assured her.

When she still looked skeptical, turning her bottom lip down a bit, he said, “I’m going to take care of you. As best I can.” 

She nodded and smiled a bit clinging to him with lanky arms and bony fingers. 

“You’ve always taken care of me, Mordred.”

“. . . I’m sorry my magic won’t work and that I can’t save us right now.” He said, and he would cry, but he was certain the tears would freeze as soon as they left his eyes. 

“It’s okay . . . you did the best you could. We lasted longer than we thought we would, didn’t we?” She said, softly.

“. . . yeah but I never thought it would end like this. Freezing to death in Ismere.” 

“Neither did I, Love.” She agreed. 

“Goodnight, Kara.” 

“Goodnight, Mordred.”

And the two lay in silence for a while, clutching each other, and eventually it stopped feeling so cold, and they began to feel exhausted. While they were aware the warmth was a sign of death, they welcomed it anyway. It was so cold they didn’t care anymore. 

Mordred died first, Kara realized, due to the fact she woke up in the night, after they’d fallen asleep. When she woke, she found Mordred’s weight against her didn’t feel as warm, and she could no longer feel the gentle rhythm of his breathing. 

While she knew her time of grieving would be short, she couldn’t help but let out a great sob at the realization she was laying against the corpse of her husband. The sob echoed against their makeshift cave and rang out across the plains.

And she spent the last few minutes of her life, gently stroking his hair and singing whatever traditional druid hymns she could remember. Even as her voice was drowned out by the harsh wind outside. 

Honestly, she probably had the energy to get up and run now. To survive. Mordred didn’t believe in an afterlife, but Kara did. And she knew that she would probably not end up wherever he ended up, Mordred always being the better of the two in the moral sense, and that these were her true last moments with him. She wanted to die with him. 

She hoped wherever she went was somewhere warm, at the very least.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow. That was. Yeah idk. What do I even say here? 😂 thank you for reading, love y’all.


End file.
